Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha 2010

The Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo is now leading the championship following his win at the Le Mans MotoGP at the weekend.

Valentino Rossi led the pack for the first eleven laps of the race after getting ahead of the Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa while Lorenzo slotted into third place and the two Marlboro Ducati’s of Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner were running in fourth and fifth.

Lorenzo soon passed Pedrosa as Stoner put his foot down to get past his team-mate and move into fourth and chase down the Honda.  Stoner was on the tail of Pedrosa when he crashed out for the second time in the last three races.

The two Fiat Yamaha’s led the field ahead of Pedrosa as Lorenzo attempted a pass on his team-mate on lap 7.  Rossi immediately retook his position but only for another four laps when the Spaniard made his move stick and shot off into the distance.

Pedrosa was then left to fight off his challenging team-mate Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden for his third spot on the podium.  With only 5 laps of the race to go the pair were on the Spaniard and looking for a way past which Dovizioso managed and the chance for Hayden came on the final lap as Pedrosa ran wide as his tyres wore down gifting Hayden took his opportunity to grab that fourth place.

Here are the results;

The MotoGP cost cutting goes a bit further than expected!

The provisional MotoGP Calendar has now been released by the FIM for the MotoGP World Championship of 2010, and hopefully all teams and riders will be on the grid as the economic crisis continues.

Date – Grand Prix – Circuit:
11 April – Qatar* – Losail
25 April – Japan – Motegi
2 May – Spain – Jerez
16 May – France – Le Mans
30 May – Italy – Mugello
6 June - Great Britain – Silverstone
26 June – Netherlands** – Assen
4 July – Catalunya – Catalunya
18 July - Germany – Sachsenring
25 July - United States*** – Laguna Seca
15 August – Czech Republic – Brno
29 August – Indianapolis – Indianapolis
12 September - San Marino & Riviera di Rimini – Misano
19 September - Hungary – Balatonring
10 October – Malaysia – Sepang
17 October – Australia - Phillip Island
31 October – Portugal – Estoril
7 November Valencia Ricardo Tormo-Valencia

* Evening Race
** Saturday Race
*** Only MotoGP class

In the event that one of the circuits is not able to comply with the requirements to hold the scheduled Grand Prix, the Motorland Aragon Circuit would host a reserve “event” on the same day.

Jorge Lorenzo

Last weekend saw the MotoGP riders heading to a rain-soaked Le Mans circuit in France with Jorge Lorenzo taking the victory for the Fiat Yamaha team.

125cc

For the first time since 2005 Julián Simón claimed the win for the Bancaja Aspar Team in dismal weather conditions at the Sunday 125cc race.

The Spaniard had qualified in seventh place but won the race with a 27 second lead over second place man, 15-year-old Jonas Folger for the Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. machine.

Many of the riders crashed-out as they struggled for grip on the water-logged circuit, including some of the leading names.

Sergio Gadea on the Bancaja Aspar bike took the third place after snatching it from his team-mate Bradley Smith with only three laps left to run.

Takaaki Nakagami, team-mate of second place man, finished in fifth place after qualifying in 31st place while the Ajo Interwetten rider Dominique Aegerter, claimed sixth despite crashing midway through the race.

Another crash victim was Andrea Iannone for the Ongetta team, who went down with the Aprilia on the opening lap, putting him to the back of the field, but an impressive ride saw him work his way back to seventh place.

In eighth place was Efren Vazquez on the Derbi Racing Team bike followed by Nicolas Terol on the Jack & Jones Aprilia and Lorenzo Zanetti for the Ongetta team in tenth place.

Out of the 33 riders that were on the grid for the start of the race, only 15 of those riders crossed the line to take the chequered flag,

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider              Bike      Time
 1.  Julian Simon       Aprilia   47m08.273s
 2.  Jonas Folger       Aprilia   +  27.084s
 3.  Sergio Gadea       Aprilia   +  30.916s
 4.  Bradley Smith      Aprilia   +  31.530s
 5.  Takaaki Nakagami   Aprilia   +1m09.235s
 6.  D.Aegerter         Derbi     +1m12.223s
 7.  Andrea Iannone     Aprilia   +1m13.063s
 8.  Efrén Vazquez      Derbi     +1m19.912s
 9.  Nicolas Terol      Aprilia   +1m40.036s
10.  Lorenzo Zanetti    Aprilia   +1m42.700s
11.  Esteve Rabat       Aprilia   +1m59.326s
12.  Sandro Cortese     Derbi     + 1 Lap
13.  Jasper Iwema       Honda     + 1 Lap
14.  Gregory Di Carlo   Honda     + 1 Lap
15.  R.Krummenacher     Aprilia   + 2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider              Bike      Laps
     Lorenzo Savadori   Aprilia    16
     Stefan Bradl       Aprilia    14
     Scott Redding      Aprilia    13
     Tomoyoshi Koyama   Loncin     10
     Luca Vitali        Aprilia    10
     Cameron Beaubier   KTM         8
     Lukas Sembera      Aprilia     8
     Marc Marquez       KTM         8
     Johann Zarco       Aprilia     8
     Sturla Fagerhaug   KTM         6
     Joan Olive         Derbi       5
     Pol Espargaro      Derbi       5
     Daniel Webb        Aprilia     4
     Steven Le Coquen   Honda       4
     Simone Corsi       Aprilia     2
     Alexis Masbou      Loncin      2
     Cyril Carrillo     Honda       1
     Luca Marconi       Aprilia     0

FASTEST LAP: Smith, 1m56.188s on lap 24

250cc

The weather hadn’t improved for the 250cc race but that didn’t seem to be a problem for the Metis Gilera rider Marco Simoncelli, who dominated the race to take the win by an 18 second gap.

Hector Barbera on the Pepe World Team machine claimed his first podium finish after taking second ahead of Simoncelli’s team-mate Roberto Locatelli in third.

In fourth place was the Spaniard Alvaro Bautista on the Mapfre Aspar Team bike followed by Ratthapark Wilairot on the Thai Honda PTT SAG bike in fifth.

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider                Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli     Gilera   49m07.591s
 2.  Hector Faubel        Honda    +  18.128s
 3.  Roberto Locatelli    Gilera   +  21.642s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista      Aprilia  +  31.087s
 5.  Ratthapark Wilairot  Honda    +  50.497s
 6.  Raffaele de Rosa     Honda    +  56.366s
 7.  Lukas Pesek          Aprilia  +1m16.025s
 8.  Hiroshi Aoyama       Honda    +1m22.882s
 9.  Imre Toth            Aprilia  +1m35.556s
10.  Vladimir Leonov      Aprilia  +1m47.990s
11.  Hector Barbera       Aprilia  +    1 lap
12.  Karel Abraham        Aprilia  +    1 lap
13.  Valentin Debise      Honda    +    1 lap
14.  Toby Markham         Honda    +    1 lap

Retirements:

     Alex Debon           Aprilia  21 laps
     Alex Baldolini       Aprilia  18 laps
     Thomas Luthi         Aprilia  18 laps
     Mike di Meglio       Aprilia  10 laps
     Mattia Pasini        Aprilia  4 laps
     Axel Pons            Aprilia  3 laps
     Aitor Rodriguez      Aprilia  3 laps
     Angel Rodriguez      Aprilia  2 laps
     Shoya Tomizawa       Honda    1 lap
     Bastien Chesaux      Honda    0 laps

MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo on the Fiat Yamaha took the victory at Le Mans yesterday followed by an impressive Marco Melandri in second place for the Hayate Racing Team.

Lorenzo dominated the circuit on Sunday after swapping bikes midway through the race as the track began to dry.

As the riders left the pit lane, they were on wet tyres seeing many of them returning to take their second bikes fitted with slicks as parts of the circuit began to dry.

Valentino Rossi actually changed his machine three times during the chaotic race, as well as a drive-through penalty and a crash, leaving  him down in last place.

Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda finished in third place after passing his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in the final moments.

Casey Stoner on the Ducati Marlboro finished in fifth place ahead of Chris Vermeulen in sixth on the Rizla Suzuki and Colin Edwards on the Monster Tech3 Yamaha in seventh.

In eighth place was the second Rizla Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi followed by James Toseland on the second Monster Tech 3 and Toni Elias on the San Carlo Honda Gresini machine completing the top ten.

A disappointing race for the LCR Honda team after Randy de Puniet could only manage a fourteenth place.  After coming into his pit garage to take the bike with slick tyres, de Puniet went on to make a mistake going into turn four and lost valuable time.

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           47m52.678s
 2.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  +  17.710s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            +  19.893s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            +  20.455s
 5.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           +  30.539s
 6.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           +  37.462s
 7.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    +  40.191s
 8.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           +  45.421s
 9.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    +  50.307s
10.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    +  53.218s
11.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    +  53.550s
12.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           +  56.647s
13.  Yuki Takahashi    Scot Honda       +  56.688s
14.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        +1m11.299s
15.  Niccolo Canepa    Pramac Ducati    +1m15.385s
16.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           +   2 laps

Retirements:

     Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    11 laps

Valentino Rossi

This weekend the MotoGP series is in France at the Le Mans circuit for the fourth round of the championship and Valentino Rossi has been wowing the crowds with a visit to the country’s capital.

Rossi took to the streets of Paris on the Monster Energy Yamaha R1 on Thursday, meeting fans, pulling wheelies and doing a burn-out by the Eiffel Tower, much to the spectators enjoyment.

Rossi is hoping to win his 99th Grand Prix this weekend after his first victory of the 2009 season last time out in Jerez.  He is currently leading the championship by 11 points ahead of Casey Stoner, with his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Spain’s Dani Pedrosa running in joint third place.

The Pramac Racing’s Niccoló Canepa, celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday and was surprised by a cake from his team in the pit garage.

Meanwhile, the 250cc rider, Gabor Talmacasi will not be racing this weekend after it was announced that a disagreement had taken place with his team and his contract with the Aspar group has now been cancelled.

Talmacsi had moved to the Balaton Racing Team 250cc for this season under the supervision of Aspar, but his management company have stated a ” lack of a second bike” and the “changing of one-sided media representation rights” for the reasons behind the termination of the contract.

Le Mans

The Le Mans 24-Hour Motorcycle Endurance race of 2009 took place on Saturday with the Yamaha Austria RT – YZF R1 team taking the victory.

The Le Mans endurance race starts differently to any other race with riders running to their bikes when the flag is dropped.  Their bikes are held by mechanics on the grid with the fastest at the front and the riders sprint across the track before jumping on and riding off.

The winning team took the lead on Saturday evening with riders Gwen Giabbani, Steve Martin and Igor Jerman, who managed a seven lap lead by the end of the race.

The Honda France team followed in second place with the Honda CBR1000RR’s ridden by the amazing Steve Plater, Sebastien Charpentier and Matthieu Lagrive.

In third place was the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team with their Suzuki GSX-R1000 and riders Vincent Phillipe, Barry Veneman and Guillaume Dietrich.

The Honda France team headed to the front of the field early on but within an hour, Lagrieve, who had qualified in pole position,  crashed the machine, however, they did set the fastest lap of the weekend.  The team were now down in 43rd position, but not all was lost and they clawed their way back to 10th place within a few hours.

After only a few hours the weather changed and torrential rain began causing many of the riders to slide off the track, including Plater, as the standing water remained on the track throughout the night.

Steve Martin, former World Superbike Champion, was at the event for only the second time and was thrilled to take the win.  He dedicated the win to his friend and mentor Peter Kerr who died at the weekend.

Steve Plater, was the replacement rider for the injured Jean Michael Bayle, who had suffered and injury to his knee, and what an impressive ride, and no doubt could have won the race if the weather had been kinder.

Simon Andrews was unable to take part in the race after the injuries he suffered at Mallory Park and had to be content with watching his team-mate Julian De Costa.  The GSR Kawasaki ZX-10R team took fourth place after qualifying in fourth.

Here are the results;